SuFI MARTYRS OF LovE

PRAISE FOR SuFI MARTYRS OF LovE:

''A brilliant look into a major Sufi tradition that will be essential reading
for anyone interested in Sufism, or mystical associations within religious
cultures generally. Ernst and Lawrence challenge the 'myth of decline' as
it has been adopted by historians and chroniclers both within and out-
side of the Chishti tradition, and allow us to see that the notion of a lost
golden age is a trope within the tradition itself, always moving to a new
generation that sees itself as the generation of decline. They also chal-
lenge successfully the tradition (or habit) of disjunction between West-
ern and South Asian perspectives by placing their own work within both
traditions of scholarship.
Sufi Martyrs of Love is particularly supple in its examination of inter-
twined topics like meditative practice, the complex role and nature of ge-
nealogies, the relation of tradition to tombs and shrines; the relation of
the Chishti order to configurations of power-pre-colonial, colonial, and
post colonial; and the pull between the tradition's homeland and its
many and fascinating outposts or new centers. This is an outstanding
book; it should be at the top of the reading list not only for Sufism but
for comparative mysticism and the history of religions as well:'
-Michael Sells, Emily Judson Baugh and John Marshall Gest
Professor of Comparative Religions at Haverford College
SuFI MARTYRS OF LovE

CHISHTI SuFISM IN
SouTH AsiA AND BEYOND

CARL w. ERNST
BRUCE B. LAWRENCE
*
SUFI MARTYRS OF LoVE
Copyright© Carl W. Ernst and Bruce B. Lawrence, 2002.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied
in critical articles or reviews.

First published in 2002 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAWM

175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS.
Companies and representatives throughout the world.

PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan

division of St. Martin's Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a
registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries.
Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries.

ISBN 978-1-4039-6027-6 ISBN 978-1-137-09581-7 (eBook)

DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-09581-7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available from the Library of
Congress

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Design by Letra Libre, Inc.

First edition: December 2002

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

Transferred to digital printing in 2007.

 AY ATISH-I FIRAQ-AT DIL-HA KABAB KARDA

SAYLAB-I ISHTIYAQ-AT JAN-HA KHARAB KARDA

AH, THE FIRE OF ABSENCE FROM YOU HAS BURNT MANY A HEART

AND THE FLOOD OF YEARNING FOR YOU HAS DESTROYED MANY A SOUL!

DEDICATED TO K. A. NIZAMI
WITH RESPECT, GRATITUDE, AND AFFECTION
Frontispiece: Map of major cities and Sufi centers of South Asia.
CONTENTS

Figures ix
Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction 1
1. What is a Sufi Order? 11
2. The Core Chishti Practices 27
3. The Art of Ancestry 47
4. The Chishti Masters 64

5. Major Chishti Shrines 85

6. Colonial Chishtis 105
7. Modern Day Chishtis 129

Appendix: The Earliest Chishti Masters: Anniversaries and Select Biographies 147
A Chishti Calendar of Saints' Death Anniversaries
Major Chishti Masters
Regional Chishti Masters
Notes 189
Bibliography on the Chishtiyya: European Language Sources 209
Select Bibliography on the Chishtiyya: Persian and Urdu Sources 223
Index of Names and Glossary of Terms 237
 FIGURES

Frontispiece: Map of major cities and Sufi centers of South Asia. Vl

0.1. The holy cities of Chishti Sufism:

Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, Ajmer, and Baghdad. 3
1.1. Spiritual genealogy or "tree" document illustrating Chishti lineage. 20
3.1. Mu'in ad-Din Chishti. Modern portrait from Rajasthan,
from the collection of Robert Dreyfus. 60
5.1. Tomb of 'Ali Sabir in Kalyar Sharif.
(Photograph by Robert Rozehnal) 87
5.2. Tomb of Salim Chishti in Fatchpur Sikri
(Photograph by Carl Ernst) 99
7.1. Diagram of the Seven Layers of the Heart,
from Ziya' al-qulub by Hajji Imdad Allah
(Prepared by Scott Kugle) 132
7.2. Qawwali singers at the 2001 'urs festival
of Capt. Wahid Bakhsh (Allahabad, Pakistan)
(Photograph by Robert Rozehnal) 135
7.3. Popular poster of the tomb of Nizam ad-Din Awliya' 139
7.4. Tomb of Hazrat Inayat Khan (Nizam ad-Din Dargah, Delhi)
(Photograph by Robert Rozehnal) 141
lNITIATIC GENEALOGY
OF THE EARLY CHISHTIS

1. Muhammad the Prophet (d. 632)

2. 'Ali ibn Abi Talib (d. 661)
3. Hasan al-Basri (d. 728)
4. 'Abd al-Wahid ibn Zayd (d. 793)
5. Fuzayl ibn 'Iyaz (d. 802)
6. Ibrahim ibn Adham (d. 779)
7. Huzayfa al-Mar 'ashi (d. 822)
8. Hubayra al-Basri
9. 'Alu Dinawari
10. Abu Ishaq Chishti (d. 940)
11. Abu Ahmad Chish ti (d. 966)
12. Muhammad Chishti (d. 1020)
13. Yusuf Chishti (d. 1067)
14. Mawdud Chishti (d. 1126)
15. Sharif Zandani
16. 'Usman Harwani (d. 1211)
17. Mu'in ad-Din Chishti (d. 1236)
18. Qutb ad-Din Bakhtiyar Kaki (d. 1235)
19. Farid ad-Din Ganji I Shakkar (d. 1265)
20. Nizam ad-Din Awliya'
 AcKNOWLEDGMENTS

T here are many people who have helped us over the years in pursuing this project,
and we would like to record here our sincere gratitude to them. It was Ian Net-
ton who first suggested the idea of a book on the Chishti order to one of us (BL). Be-
cause of our long-standing friendship and shared professional interest in the
Chishtiyya, not to mention our close proximity (Duke University is only 12 miles
from UNC-Chapel Hill), he immediately invited the other (CE) to make it a joint col-
laboration. We then decided to offer a joint course in the fall of 1995, as we have reg-
ularly done over the years, this time focusing on the Chishti Sufi order. Our hope was
that holding a specialized seminar on this topic would allow us to generate new ap-
proaches and examine sources in a fresh way. Our expectation was more than met-
a combination of graduate students and advanced undergraduates joined in an
intense 14-week experience that proved memorable to all of us. We would like to
single out in particular the graduate students of the seminar (Zia Inayat Khan, Murris
Faruqui, Omid Safi, Seemi Ghazi, Scott Kugle, Frederick Colby) for their outstanding
research projects, some of which we have quoted in the pages that follow.
The process of writing this book was a true collaboration, mostly carried out in one
or the other of our homes, with the host handling the computer while we both con-
tributed to the writing, editing, and revision. While we have drawn upon our earlier
publications, they have been significantly adapted and modified for this book, and at
this point there is not a single page that does not bear the marks of both authors. In
writing this book, we have received tremendous support and encouragement from our
spouses (miriam cooke and Judith Ernst); nothing we say can adequately convey what
this means. Another figure close to home who deserves mention is Lucy, the faithful
dog of the Ernst household; during many a session, she lay at our feet like the dog of
the Seven Sleepers, a deeply sympathetic silent collaborator.
The process of writing this book was prolonged unduly by unavoidable adminis-
trative entanglements that affected both authors, so we particularly appreciate the ef-
forts of those who helped us to bring this to completion. In finally getting to closure,
we were assisted by two graduate research assistants, Robert Rozehnal (Duke) and
Steven Ramey (UNC), who carefully scrutinized the manuscript for both style and
substance. Maura High read, reviewed, and expertly commented on the entire man-
uscript; her stylistic insights helped make the final version accessible to the nonspe-
cialist. We are also extremely grateful to Professor Shantanu Phukan, of the UNC
Curriculum in Asian Studies, for his superb translation of the Urdu poem by Iqbal
that serves as a coda to the book. Professor Marcia Hermansen of Loyola University
(Chicago) graciously permitted us to summarize (in Chapter 6) some of her unpub-
lished research materials on colonial Chishti masters.
XIV SUFI MARTYRS OF LOVE

Many others assisted along the way. Members of the Triangle South Asia Consor-
tium-particularly Katherine Ewing, John Richards, David Gilmartin, Tony Stewart,
and Joanne Waghorne-provided astute and helpful comments on earlier drafts of
the book that were presented at our monthly colloquium, and in a series of confer-
ences held under the auspices of the Rockefeller Humanities Institute on South Asian
Islam and the Greater Muslim World. The Carolina-Duke-Emory Institute for the
Study of Islam also provided a forum for our presentations; thanks especially to
Richard Martin, Gordon Newby, and Vincent Cornell. We also are grateful to our ed-
itor at Palgrave Press, Gayatri Patnaik, who has been enthusiastic and supportive in
shepherding this book into print.
But our debts go back considerably further, since both of us have been engaged
with the study of the Chishtiyya for the past 25 years. Professor Annemarie Schim-
mel of Harvard University provided an outstanding model of scholarship in Islamic
studies and Sufism and encouraged our research at all levels. Many other scholars
have generously shared their researches with us, including Christopher Shackle
(SOAS), Simon Digby, Riyazul Islan (Karachi), Richard Eaton (University of Ari-
zona), Regula Qureshi (University of Alberta), and Barbara Metcalf (UC Davis);
thanks to all of them. There have also been numerous representatives of the Chishti
order who have extended extraordinary hospitality and cooperation to us, without
whose active encouragement this project would not have been possible. We think
particularly of Syed Shah Khusro Husseini (Gulbarga), the late Fariduddin Saleem
(Khuldabad), the late Capt. Wahid Bakhsh Sial (Allahabad, Pakistan), Dr. Mansoor
Hashmi (Lahore), Dr.AftabAhmed (Lahore), Dr. Mashkoor Syed (Ajmer), and many
others. Their graciousness and dignity are direct extensions of the high ideals of the
early Chishti masters.
Most of all, we owe an immeasurable debt of gratitude to the doyen of the study
of Indian Sufism, the late Professor K. A. Nizami. It was due to his encouragement
and hospitality that one of us (BL) spent two years at the Aligarh Muslim Univer-
sity in 1975-77 as a postdoctoral fellow, and that the other (CE) did doctoral re-
search at Aligarh in 1978-79, in this way becoming initiated into the world of
Indo-Muslim culture. Professor Nizami's intellectual leadership, his vast erudition,
and his immense sympathy provided a truly inspiring model of scholarship. It is to
him that we jointly dedicate this volume, and our only regret is that he did not live
to see its appearance.

Durham and Chapel Hill, N.C., March 2002